TAKE A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
Do you have any photos of yourself, family and friends taking part in Riding Club, Pony Club or Gymkhana activities from years ago. Were you more into Hunter Trials and Cross Country or did you all Hunt possibly?
Equestrian Life is featuring 'The Way We Were Part 2"for our forthcoming January issue. We need your contribution. Send us your old photos, enclose an SAE for safe return, add a short paragraph of the history of the photo and we can do the rest.
You can also email your pictures if preferable to us direct at info@equestrianlifemagazine.com or louise@equestrianlifemagazine.com with the short explanatory paragraph as a Word document.
We look forward to hearing from you
Brocklesby Point to Point Review – Saturday 9th February 2008
Some great racing was enjoyed in lovely spring sunshine at Brocklesby Park on Saturday. 99 horses contested 8 races and the track was in excellent condition. The meeting was celebrating 50 years of racing on the course and was held by kind permission of the Earl of Yarborough.
Miles Seston got off the mark as a trainer when his own Be Upstanding won the Clark Weightman Confined Hunts race. Seston only began training this season and this was just his 6th runner. The 13 year old Be Upstanding beat 5-2 favourite Fair Doo by 5 lengths with Madison De Vonnas in 3rd. Seston is undecided as to where to go next with Be Upstanding but is certain about his future as a trainer and plans to build more stables at his base close to Clumber Park.
Yorkshire jockey Mark Walford rode a double starting in the Symes Bains Broomer Solicitor’s Members race on Sam Cruise owned by Mrs Pinney Strawson and trained by Walford’s Mother Gill. Sam Cruise had fallen on his debut at Cottenham in December but put in a clear round here to beat Distant Memory who is trained by Nick Kent. Distant Memory is a bit of a character but was given a good ride by Steve Magee and should be able to win a maiden in due course. Norfolk Jive finished 3rd for Meeting Secretary Jenny Burt. The second leg of Walford’s double came in the Nunn’s Mitsubishi Restricted Race aboard Harwood Dale who used to be trained by Gill Walford but is now trained by Tracey Corrigan Clark for Hugh Waldie. This was a lucky spare ride for Walford as Harwood Dale would have been ridden by Clive Mulhall had he not been claimed to ride his wife, Marti’s, runner, Coogee Beach, which unfortunately fell and Mulhall suffered cracked ribs.
Clive Mulhall subsequently missed the ride on The Tinkerater who finished 3rd in division 1 of the Open Maiden (sponsored by Paul Wiseman) which was won by Mrs Judy Wilson’s Walter’s Laddie ridden by Stuart Morris who has now chalked up three winners in the Midlands Area this season. Both the Tinkerater and the second horse, Ski Dazzle, look like horses to note in future maiden races. Division 2 of the open maiden race sponsored by St Hughes Hospital went to the 6-year-old North Island who is trained by David Easterby and was ridden by Oliver Greenall.
Greenall was another jockey to ride a double as he had scored impressively on Amicelli in the Singleton Birch Men’s Open race defying a 7lb penalty. This horse looks like one to follow and could well be capable of winning a hunter chase and is now eligible for the £10,000 Volkswagen Touareg Men’s Point-to-Point Championship Hunter Chase final at Towcester on Monday 12th May.
In the TBA/MFHA Mares maiden, Greenall and Amalfi Storm went off the 6-4 market leaders but couldn’t quite get the better of Richard Armson and Burn Brook. Armson’s wife Sam gave birth to twins during the close season but unfortunately they were unwell so missed seeing this winner who is now eligible for the £1000 TBA/MFHA Mares and Fillies Championship at the Atherstone point-to-point in April.
Jill Dawson got off the mark for the season when Sir Storm won the DDM Ladies’ Open race. This was an exciting contest and the second-placed Honest Endeavour is a useful Ladies Open horse who had made the journey from Worcestershire. The 3-1 favourite, Rainbow Tree, could finish only third despite being given a good ride by Jacqui Coward.
By Emma Forman
Mark Todd makes a comeback
Three day eventing legend, Mark Todd, is set to make a comeback on the eventing scene and he’s set his sights high…the 2008 Olympic Games. The decision was made following a conversation with his children, in which they commented that he had been to many Olympics and yet they had never been able to see him. Following this, his Olympic prospect “Gandalf” appeared.
“It all happened within about a week,” Mark comments, “As soon as I sat on him I liked him. He’s well capable of being competitive at top level.”
However, Toddy, who competed in 5 successive Olympic Games, clocking up two gold medals, one silver medal and two bronzes and who was voted rider of the twentieth century by the FEI, realises that it will be no mean feat to get there.
“It’s a long shot,” he explains, with only a short time until the Olympics and only 6months to get qualified and selected. He is adamant however that he is fit enough as he has been riding out the racehorses daily but adds, “Maybe I don’t bounce as much as I used to!”
To qualify, Toddy needs to go clear at Puhuini Three Day Event in New Zealand in March and then proceed to Europe to complete a further qualifier. He insists he is not going to put himself under any pressure and is going to have fun doing it.
So it’s time to get out the old autographs, because the master is back!
By Kayleigh Nicholls
